The effects of psychiatric history and age on self-regulation of the default mode network

Real-time neurofeedback enables human subjects to learn to regulate their brain activity, effecting behavioral changes and improvements of psychiatric symptomatology. Neurofeedback up-regulation and down-regulation have been assumed to share common neural correlates. Neuropsychiatric pathology and aging incur suboptimal functioning of the default mode network. Despite the exponential increase in real-time neuroimaging studies, the effects of aging, pathology and the direction of regulation on neurofeedback performance remain largely unknown. Using real-time fMRI data shared through the Rockland Sample Real-Time Neurofeedback project (N = 136) and open-access analyses, we first modeled neurofeedback performance and learning in a group of subjects with psychiatric history (n_a = 74) and a healthy control group (n_b = 62). Subsequently, we examined the relationship between up-regulation and down-regulation learning, the relationship between age and neurofeedback performance in each group and differences in neurofeedback performance between the two groups. For interpretative purposes, we also investigated functional connectomics prior to neurofeedback. Results show that in an initial session of default mode network neurofeedback with real-time fMRI, up-regulation and down-regulation learning scores are negatively correlated. This finding is related to resting state differences in the eigenvector centrality of the posterior cingulate cortex. Moreover, age correlates negatively with default mode network neurofeedback performance, only in absence of psychiatric history. Finally, adults with psychiatric history outperform healthy controls in default mode network up-regulation. Interestingly, the performance difference is related to no up-regulation learning in controls. This finding is supported by marginally higher default mode network centrality during resting state, in the presence of psychiatric history.